Monthly Archives: November 2009

The in basket: Dorothy Cokelet of Sunnyhill Road in the West Hills
area just outside the Bremerton city limits wonders why the county
didn’t restore the yellow centerline on her road after paving it
this summer.

There’s a lot of traffic on the road, she said.

The out basket: And so the county discovered after another resident
protested the same thing, says Traffic Engineer Jeff Shea.

Sunnyhill will get its stripe back, but not right away.

The county had decided to no longer put a center stripe on
Sunnyhill as it standardized which roads get a center stripe and
which don’t, he said.

“We now evaluate all roads when overlayed or chip–sealed for
striping requirements,” he said. “The Manual on Uniform Traffic
Control Devices only mandates striping on paved urban arterials and
collectors with daily traffic greater than 6,000 vehicles per
day.

Sunnyhill, with about 600 vehicles a day, was among 15 roads chosen
to be added to the list of those without a center stripe, he
said.

“At the request of a resident living along the road, we conducted
an investigation of the street,” Jeff said. We found many
non-residents use it as a cut-through to get between Harlow and
Werner. The officially classified collector which runs
parallel to Sunnyhill (Broad, O and Ida roads) does not really work
as a collector due to the narrowness of the road and the turns
involved in getting from Harlow to Werner.” Also, they noted that
the truck volumes on Sunnyhill were much higher than most roads,
10-15 percent.

“For these reasons we made the decision to restripe the
road,” he said. “The problem we’ve encountered since making this
decision is the weather.

“We cannot stripe with our environmentally friendly water-based
paint if there is even a hint of rain,” Jeff said. “It will not
dry. The air and surface temperature must be above 50 degrees or
warmer also. We are hoping we get a chance to stripe it this
year, though the window of opportunity may be very limited.”

The in basket: I was alarmed Thursday night when I suddenly ran
over something in westbound Mile Hill Drive right at the Long Lake
Road traffic signal.

Neither my wife nor I had seen anything in the road. The sudden
bump didn’t seem severe enough to have been a person, or even an
animal, though it was more than a speed hump would have caused. We
didn’t see anything in the road when we came back the other
way.

By
Friday morning daylight, though, a large swell in the pavement was
visible. The county had posted one of those “Motorcycles Use
Extreme Caution” signs, one of the rare times they seemed to be
helpful. By the next day, the lump was barely noticeable.

I’ve seen many slumps and even washouts after the kind of rain we
had Thursday. But a swelling was new to me. I would think a rise
like that supported only by water would have made the asphalt break
up. I asked what was going on.

The out basket: Doug Bear of Kitsap County Public Works said it
was, indeed, caused by water.

“We have found that water is infiltrating under the roadway causing
the portion you saw to raise up. We did some preliminary work to
minimize the bump and plan additional work in the next week or two
to determine what is happening.

“We are going to use our video pipe inspection system to look at
the drainage there to determine where the problem is. Once we
identify that we will develop a permanent solution.”

The in basket: Robert Campbell says, “I travel by bus and sometimes
by car to and from PSNS. I have noticed that the new lights
after the tunnel project was completed at Burwell and Warren are
slowing commuter traffic eastbound.

“For some reason,” he said, “the engineers felt that westbound
traffic on Burwell needed a left-turn signal to enter a Diamond
parking lot at the south end of Warren. Not only does this
seem odd, the left hand light is very long. Eastbound drivers
going to the ferry terminal stack up at the light in the mornings
and during peak ferry loading times, while no one ever turns
left.

“I have not timed this light, but few people turn left
into the parking lot. And the time it delays eastbound
traffic towards the terminal seems unwarranted.

“I would submit that this light is totally unnecessary,”
Robert said. “And certainly it should stay green for a very short
time. It is a back route into an alley that could
access the back of the new police station, but the police
station has a much shorter access just west of it.”

Also Bill Throm of South Kitsap told me many months ago he got the
impression the light stayed green way too long for cars EXITING
that parking lot.

The out basket: Brenden Clarke, project engineer on the tunnel, who
also holds sway over the changes made to accommodate the tunnel,
says the problem is kind of collateral damage from serving the main
traffic flows.

“Due to the through and left movement on Burwell heading eastbound,
the east and westbound directions of Burwell must have separate
phases,” he said. “As a result, when westbound comes up green
the eastbound direction must receive a red so that the eastbound
lefts are not in conflict.

As
long as they have to be stopping eastbound Burwell traffic while
the westbound is flowing, they might as well leave the turn arrow
into the parking lot on green even if traffic rarely demands it, he
said. No other movement would be permissible during that time.

They tried splitting the left turns onto northbound Warren from the
through eastbound traffic, giving the latter a green light while
the inside lane from which turns must now be made stayed
red.

“Despite pavement markings and the signal displays, motorists who
have been used to turning left only for two years did not take well
to the new configuration,” he said. “People were turning left on
red, or turning left from the right lane when left lane motorists
were going through.”

“The signal is currently set up as efficiently and safely as
possible considering the constraints,” he said. “(The
state) and the city of Bremerton worked together to come up
with the signal timing that is currently being used. Without
major (and costly) modifications to the signal, we feel that it is
operating as well as it can be.”

As
for traffic leaving the parking lot, I can’t say what the case may
have been back when Bill mentioned it, but it’s green only long
enough to serve waiting cars now.

The in basket: Once again, my wife, TheJudyBaker, is the source of
a question. She was in a new car dealership the other day, making a
preliminary inquiry about buying a new car, and she believes the
salesman told her a change was coming in sales tax on car purchases
after the first of the year.

She got the impression that the practice of deducting the value of
a trade-in from the price of a new car and applying the sales tax
rate to the difference was about to end. It used to be that way,
that the sales tax rate was applied to the total purchase price of
the new car, but it was changed by voter initiative in 1984.

That’s a big deal, if true, I told her.

The out basket: Fortunately for car buyers and sellers, it’s not
true.

Mike Gowrylow, spokesman for the state Department of Revenue tells
me, “No legislation was passed to eliminate the trade-in deduction,
and none has been proposed.

“If anything, legislators have been sympathetic to the fiscal
plight of car dealers and bills were introduced during the 2009
session to give them tax breaks such as a lower B&O tax rate,
though none passed. Eliminating the sales tax deduction on the
value of trade-ins would be a tax hike and increase the total cost
to buyers and discourage sales.

Mike added, “I can only assume the salesperson was misinformed, or
auto dealers may be fearful that the trade-in law might be
repealed. Or it was just a way to encourage someone to buy
now.”

The in basket: Sandy, who kept her last name to herself, was upset
to find a $101 ticket on the car she had left in the Agate Pass
park & ride lot with a “for sale” sign on it Oct. 4.

As
far as she was concerned, that lot is “a known place in the county,
as far back as anyone can remember, to sell your vehicle. My
husband bought his truck last February from seeing it on this same
lot,” she said.

“When I dropped my car off at 9 a.m. that Sunday the row next to
the highway was filled. I had to park mine in the back row.
I believe there were at least 20 cars with ‘for sale’
signs at that time. When I came back at 5:30 to pick up my
car, every car that was still on the lot with a ‘for
sale’ sign, had a ticket. For sure I saw eight cars with
tickets.

“What irks me is that for many year’s this park and
ride IS a well-known place to leave your car. I had
even checked with a long time resident of Bainbridge Island and he
had not heard/saw that cars are being ticketed/forbidden to be left
there.

“Has something happened that the rules have been changed, the laws
are going to be enforced and vehicles ticketed? Why had
violators not been consistently ticketed and laws enforced in
the past? Why now, why the change?”

The out basket: I don’t know if it was infrequent enforcement or
what that led the community to believe that weekend display of “for
sale” signs on cars in that lot was permissible. But there
certainly is no such exemption stated on the big official sign near
the entrance to the lot. It says no unauthorized cars or cars with
‘for sale’ signs are allowed there. The sign is surrounded by
brambles, so obviously is not new.

Since Sandy wrote, I’ve checked park & ride lots at McWilliams
and Mullenix roads and in Purdy, and all have the identical sign
forbidding the practice.

The signs all say such cars are subject to being impounded, which
can cost a lot more than $101. So it could have been worse for
those who were ticketed at Agate Pass.

WSP Sgt. Ken Przygocki told me “The Agate Pass Park & Ride … is
intended for motorists who carpool, vanpool, ride bicycles and
utilize the transit system and is clearly posted advising everyone
of this intent. The … posted rules are in effect 24 hours a day and
seven days a week.

“I
encourage your readers to make themselves aware of all posted signs
on state property before leaving their vehicles unattended,” he
said.

He
said enforcement at the Agate Pass lot has been stepped up since
1999, when a commuter complained about not being able to find a
space while many vehicles for sale took up spots. Another complaint
was received in October about a weekend shortage of spaces.
“Therefore a trooper went to investigate and citations were
issued,” Ken said.

“A
study was done of the park & ride and vehicles were observed
parked there with large amounts of pine needles and other debris
covering the vehicles (which indicated they had been there for some
time).

“(There were) boats on trailers for sale and that were not attached
to vehicles, and vans and other larger vehicles that took up 4-6
parking spaces. I myself (while off-duty) have observed numerous
types of vehicles, boats, trailers, motor homes, jet skies, trucks
and motorcycles parked at this lot with ‘for sale’ signs on many
occasions.

“Calls for service that are more of a priority prevent us from
checking the lot daily or weekly,” he said. “However, when time
allows, troopers will continue to check the lot for violations. It
is up to the trooper’s judgment if the vehicle is ticketed, towed
or if the owner is called to remove it.”

It’s not easy to find a well-traveled spot to leave a car with a
for-sale sign on it. You can get away with one or two of your own
cars on your own property, but if on someone else’s property, or if
it’s a succession of different cars, it becomes a zoning violation
that will get county code enforcement involved.

John Clauson of Kitsap Transit said his agency also doesn’t want
the park& ride lots it maintains on its own without state
partnership to be used for selling cars.

County code enforcement officer Steve Mount’s best advice? Get a
classified ad.

Epilog::

Sandy says she went to court in November and won her case.

“I
took pictures of every car with a For-Sale sign
the Sunday following my ticket and the Sunday preceding
my court date,” she said. “I also took a pic of the DOT sign
posted at the lot. Between the sign’s posted RCW’s, what
I was sited for on the ticket and the reason for the siting –
Abandonded Vehicle – the judge said the ticket was confusing
and found I did not commit the offense. He said the pictures
helped to tell the story that ticketing was not happening
consistently.

“The authorities know the lot is being used as a used car lot on
the weekends and the community, in a large sense, supports it,” she
asserted.

“Everyone I spoke to has been surprised that ticketing was
occurring,” she said. “Would I ever try to sell a car there again?
No way. I sold my car one week later, using a
national auto listing site.”

The in basket: I was having coffee with Port Orchard Police Chief
Al Townsend and his second in command, Geoff Marti recently, and I
asked them about something I didn’t expect either of them to know
about.

A
friend of TheJudyBaker, my wife, who rides to and from work with
her, always admonishes her to slow way down in Port Orchard,
because a young relative had once been ticketed for doing one mile
over the speed limit there.

The out basket: I didn’t even have to ask if that’s possible, when
Al said he knew all about it.

When he came to town 10 years ago to take over the department, he
found that Port Orchard officers would sometimes give speeders a
break by citing for a little less than the speeder actually was
going. I’ve generally found that to be a common practice in many
places.

Then, as now, the first five miles per hour incurs a lesser fine
than 6 to 10 over, which has a lesser fine than 11 to 20 over and
so on.

But the practice was back-firing, he said, in that a lot of
people came away from the experience convinced they’d been ticketed
for 1-over. As I’ve often written in this column, instances where a
person is stopped and cited for less than 10-over are quite
rare.

So
he told his troops to just write it for the actual speed, he said.
There shouldn’t have been any 1-over tickets in Port Orchard for
years.

The in basket: Robert Arper wrote to ask, “Would someone please
explain to me why the signs warning us of a photo patrolled
intersection are posted on the side of the road before the
intersection instead of hanging next to the traffic
light?

“When I am approaching an intersection,” Robert said, “I normally
am glancing back and forth between the traffic signal and the
intersection rather than looking at the right shoulder for a sign
so it makes little sense to me why the warning signs are placed
where they are.

“Are they concerned with extra weight on the cables or posts
holding the traffic light? Or is there concern of the warning
signs catching the wind and causing problems that way?”

The out basket: Larry Matel, street engineer for the city of
Bremerton, which has several photo-enforced intersections, replied,
“Warning signs are customarily placed on the right side of the road
in the direction of travel as a standard location where
drivers expect to find them. Sometimes signs are placed over travel
lanes to augment traffic signal indications.”

Examples I can think of advise when left turns are legal and what
kind of yielding is required, when right turns on red are
forbidden, and what kind of turns are allowed from what
lanes.

Larry continued, “Yes, wind concerns can also come into play when
placing a sign. If a sign is supported overhead by a cable,
(as those at photo-enforced 11th and Warren in Bremerton, are, for
example) most likely two cables would be needed in some locations
for sign stability.”

The in basket: Joy Forsberg of Central Kitsap said she got a dirty
look from a women who was merging onto Highway 303 at Central
Valley Road, heading to Silverdale recently, after Joy had decided
to maintain her speed in the outside lane rather than moving over
or changing speed to allow the woman in ahead of or behind
her.

It
wasn’t the first time, either, she said. Is it no longer the
responsibility of the person entering a freeway to yield to anyone
on the freeway already, she asked.

Though she often does move to the inside lane in such situations,
that time she chose not to. “She should not expect me to speed up
or slow down” to let her in, Joy said.

The out basket: No, the law hasn’t changed, and should there have
been a collision, the woman entering the freeway would have been at
fault.

In
the real world, though, most drivers do move over to the inside
lane to make way for the entering car. The dirty look may have been
because the other woman was expecting that, rather that a belief
that it was a requirement.

The woman did slow and fall in behind her after scowling at her,
Joy said.

She noted that often a car in the inside lane keeps a driver
from moving over, though she didn’t say if that was the case during
her small confrontation.

The in
basket: Retired Judge Jim Maddock rang me up the other day to call
attention to what he felt is a missing sign in downtown
Bremerton.

When
southbound on Washington Avenue, he said, there is a sign hanging
in its intersection with Sixth Street indicating a right turn to
get to the ferry to Seattle. When I checked, I saw the same sign
overhead as one exits the Manette Bridge onto Washington.

But, Jim
notes, there is no comparable sign on Sixth at Pacific Avenue,
where a left turn must be made for the direct route to the ferry
terminal.

A person
new to town would most likely continue straight on Sixth for who
knows how long, Jim said.

The out
basket: Absolutely right, said Brenden Clarke, who has a lot to do
with streets in Bremerton these days even though he’s a project
engineer for the state. He was in charge of the tunnel project and
incurred responsibility for a lot of city issues related to
it.

“We
reviewed the site today and concur that there should be a sign at
Sixth

and
Pacific,” he said. “We are working on getting a sign installed at
that

location.”

Maybe
some of you familiar with GPS systems could let me know if having
one operating in your car would alert you to the need to turn from
Sixth onto Pacific to reach the ferry terminal even when no sign
tells you to.

The in basket: Art Malgapo says he and his wife regularly debate
the correct thing to do when they come to a red light on Warren
Avenue at 16th Street at Olympic College in Bremerton, and want to
turn right. A sign there says ‘Stop on Red.’ It’s one of the
intersections where a camera catches red light violators.

He
asks if a driver in that situation should “make a complete
stop then make a right turn when the traffic coming from Olympic
College is green, or make a complete stop and wait for the light to
turn green while listening to those drivers behind you honking
their horns.

“I
know someone who recently got a ticket for making a right turn
after stopping when the ‘Stop on Red’ light is on. What do you
think?”

The out basket: Lt. Pete Fisher of Bremerton police says choice A
is the correct answer. “The sign was meant to make it clear to
motorists that they must stop on red (We were getting a large
number of people on the camera who were not stopping prior to
making their turn. We wanted to try to reduce the number of
violations with this sign).

“Once they have stopped, then they can proceed to make a right on
red when traffic permits,” Pete said. They needn’t wait for the
light to turn green.

I
think the only reason a right turner would get a ticket there would
be rolling through the turn, and not stopping completely. It’s the
most common infraction caught by the red light cameras.

If
it really is merely for turning on red, I think the person should
inquire about the reasons.